OTTAWA, Nov 27 With deadlines fast approaching,
Canada is still weighing two proposed foreign takeovers of
domestic energy companies, but a top minister offered no clues
on Tuesday as to when or how the government would announce the
hotly debated decisions.

The government says it will unveil new policy guidelines on
foreign investment at about the same time it announces verdicts
on the proposed takeovers: A bid by China's CNOOC Ltd
for Nexen Inc and a bid by Malaysia's Petronas
for Progress Energy Resources Corp.

Although the deadline for delivering a decision on the
CNOOC-Nexen deal is Dec. 10, Industry Minister Christian Paradis
said officials had not finished their work yet. Paradis is in
nominal charge of the file, although few political analysts
doubt that Prime Minister Stephen Harper will make the ultimate
decision.

"There are (takeover) reviews ongoing that I cannot comment
on, but we are working on the policy framework to make sure
that, in the future, foreign investment continues to provide net
benefit for Canada," Paradis told reporters.

"We'll go out with the reviews, with the guidelines when we
are ready to do so. We will clarify what we need to clarify."

The Conservative government is trying to balance the need
for foreign investment to develop natural resources with concern
that China and other countries could snap up a big chunk of the
energy sector and that state-owned companies might not play by
free-market rules.

Andrew MacDougall, Harper's chief spokesman, declined to
comment on a Business News Network report that Ottawa might want
CNOOC to sell Nexen's 7 percent stake in the large Syncrude oil
sands joint venture because China's Sinopec has a 9
percent stake in it.

The CNOOC bid featured in the campaign for a parliamentary
seat in the center of the oil city of Calgary. No decision came
before a Nov. 26 election there and in two other cities, as
observers had predicted.

Although Dec. 10 is the deadline for Nexen, investors are
also eyeing Nov. 30 after online news service dealReporter
quoted Canada's consul general in New York, John Prato, as
saying Ottawa would issue the foreign investment guidelines
during November.

The Conservative party is divided on what to do about
Chinese investment.

In Toronto on Tuesday, Alison Redford, Progressive
Conservative premier of the oil province of Alberta, noted that
foreign investors once owned 78 percent of the energy patch and
the result was that Alberta is now Canada's economic engine.

"It's not something that we are hesitant about," she said of
foreign investment.

"We think that if you want to play on the international
stage and you have the sorts of resources that we have in
Canada, it's important for us to be able to build those business
partnerships," she told reporters.

NEW YORK, Dec 9 A Gabonese man who prosecutors
say acted as a "fixer" for a joint-venture involving the hedge
fund Och-Ziff Capital Management Group LLC pleaded
guilty on Friday to U.S. charges that he engaged in a foreign
bribery scheme.

Trending Stories

Sponsored Topics

Reuters is the news and media division of Thomson Reuters. Thomson Reuters is the world's largest international multimedia news agency, providing investing news, world news, business news, technology news, headline news, small business news, news alerts, personal finance, stock market, and mutual funds information available on Reuters.com, video, mobile, and interactive television platforms. Learn more about Thomson Reuters products: